ADHESION OF POLYMERS TO REINFORCING FIBERS

A single fibre pull out technique is presented which makes it possible to measure the strength in the interface between fibre and polymer with high precision even if the embedded length of the fibre is short. The method allows measurements for all kinds of fibres in thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers. The effect of fibre surface treatment can be investigated as well as the effect of morphology or internal stresses in the polymer. Examples are given. An analysis of mechanical stress induced during the pull out demonstrates the use and limitation of this method. The shear strength results are compared with results of tensile shear tests performed on symmetrically notched unidirectional reinforced composite samples. The correlation is good and it is shown that the new single fibre pull out method is able to give a better discrimination between the composites than other methods.